Conventional liquid application techniques, such as used in painting, employ devices commonly referred to as “paint rollers.” Such techniques require the frequent saturation of a cylindrical paint roller pad with liquid paint from a separate paint reservoir, basin, or paint tray containing a supply of the paint. For “touch-up” purposes, a smaller version of the traditional paint roller is sometimes used. In such applications, the roller mechanism and the paint tray or reservoir is significantly smaller in dimension than the standard or typical paint tray or reservoir. Otherwise, the operation of these smaller versions is very similar to the operation of the standard or typical paint rollers.
Many common paint touch-up applicators include a bottle or reservoir for holding liquid paint and typically have a threaded neck portion or other locking mechanism that allows a roller applicator to be attached. A single and centrally located fluid port extends between the bottle opening and a surface adjacent to a roller pad. In such applicators it is likely that the fluid port may be off-center with respect to the roller axis alignment with the bottle or reservoir.
Common application processes in which one skilled in the trade may paint a vertical wall, such devices require specific orientation for which the device needs to be aligned in vertical position, with respect to vertical alignment, in which the fluid port is in the upper position to the central roller axis origin. Further, should the orientation be inverted, and the fluid port is in the lower position to the central roller axis, with respect to vertical alignment, the paint will often drip from the roller and fluid port and on to the floor.
Another deficiency in common touch-up roller devices is the lack of even paint distribution across the surface of the roller pad. Embodiments that contain a fluid port that enables paint to be transferred from a bottle, through a roller housing, and onto a roller surface, typically contain a single fluid port which delivers paint to a central location on the roller pad surface. The paint is most likely concentrated centrally to the pad surface and inhibits paint saturation across the width of roller pad. An operator of such device cannot apply paint upon a surface for which the deposition of paint upon that surface is not uniform because the application device fails to deliver paint uniformly upon the roller surface. Such devices result in the delivery of paint from the single port onto the central circumference of the roller surface, leaving large portions on either side of the central circumference of the roller surface deficient in paint saturation.
Yet another shortcoming found in conventional touch-up roller devices is the lack of versatility. The utility of such device requires the user to disassemble the roller device to gain access to the paint reservoir. In such devices, the roller applicator assembly and the reservoir are of a specific size and dimension as to allow proper mating or assembly.
For example, many craft stores commonly sell small pre-filled bottles of paint, and bottles of glue, and bottles of other liquids that may be applied to a surface. As such, a consumer of these products must also purchase a hand-held application device whereas such device may be a paintbrush, or a paint roller, or a painting sponge, or paint knife, or other paint application device. Within this example, the application device cannot be attached to the pre-filled paint bottle. The small pre-filled bottles of paint or other liquid have a narrow diameter bottle opening which prevent the consumer from dipping a paintbrush directly into the bottle, thus requires the acquisition of a reservoir to pour the paint or other liquid into and also requires frequent re-saturation, or dipping, of the application device within the now liquid-containing reservoir.
One popular application device, the SHUR-LINE Touch Up Painter model #1859464, is supplied with a reservoir bottle that is properly mated to, and affixes directly to the SHUR-LINE Touch Up Painter roller housing. As such, the affixing mechanism, or threads, of the roller housing are not universally mated to other readily available pre-filled bottles of paint, or bottles of glue, or bottles of other liquids that may be applied to a surface, such as craft paints, thus cannot be directly affixed to such pre-filled bottles of paint.
What is needed is a small self-contained paint transfer device that: (i) does not require a separate paint tray for saturation or re-saturation of paint or other liquid compound onto the roller surface; (ii) mitigates the dripping of paint from the device; (iii) does not require specific device orientation during the process of use; (iv) supplies sufficient distribution of liquid compound or paint to the surface of the paint roller pad to enable desired consistency of liquid compound or paint deposition upon a substrate; (v) contains an internal reservoir within the body of the roller housing to aid in the liquid reclaim from the roller due to roller over-saturation as well as supplying a distribution of paint to the roller surface, and (vi) such device that contains a common screw-on thread design as to allow attachment to prefilled paint bottles supplied and distributed through common retail establishments, such as Michael's Stores, AC Moore Stores, Walmart, and Jo Ann stores, and to enable the user to fill bottles with liquid paint.
As such, there is continuous and direct application from the manufactures' pre-filled liquid compound bottle onto a transfer surface and subsequently continuous and direct transference onto a desired application substrate, thus eliminating otherwise required steps of transferring such liquid compound into a reservoir, or a cup, or a tray, and further dipping or saturating an application device into such liquid filled reservoir, or cup, or tray, and further subsequent transference of liquid compound to a desired substrate by means of the application device, and further multiple repetition of such steps for continued application to the target substrate.